Why do Goby need a refugium?

[fahadahmed]

I hear that Mandarin Goby and Diamond Goby need to have a refugium. I only have a wet / dry sump and no room for a refugium.

Why do they need a refugium? Is it a must?

LFS told me that diamond goby eats shrimps. Correct?

[o0jmadr0x0o]

mandarin eats pods, lots of pods and usualy only pods, (unless you get lucky and the ones at your LFS eat prepared foods). i would say a well established fuge is necessary to keep on alive for more then just a couple months.

[hybridgenius]

Even if the dragonet eats frozen foods it still isnt enough to keep it healthy and alive. You might want to take your time before purchasing a manderin because they hunt and eat ALLLL DAY. I bought about 2000 copepods and tossed them into a huge cave where its covered by rock and no fish can get in. Its been multiplying like crazy still and doing good for my manderin. If you have a large tank then I'd say you could be fine with the right pod culturing set-up, just make sure the mandering CAN'T keep up the the pods multiplying.

[llorence]

In addition, if you are wanting to keep a dragonet, you will want to avoid fish like a Six Line Wrasse. The Six Line also eats pods and will compete with the dragonet for food. Because of its faster more aggressive nature, the Six Line will probably win in the end.

[fahadahmed]

Understood with the pods....but how does having a refugium help with this? I have tons of pods in my tank, besides, I can buy and add more.

[returnofsid]

Having a refugium is a safe place for pods to reproduce without being eaten by fish. It's a "refuge." You may have a ton of pods in your tank now but you gotta realize that Dragonettes spend the ENTIRE day methodically hunting and eating pods. Your current population of pods won't last long. There is the option of purchasing pods, but there's no guarantee they'll always be available and it'll be hard for you to calculate your population of pods. Having a well run refugium will almost guarantee that you have a self sustaining population of pods. A refugium will also go along way towards helping with filtration and nitrate removal.

[hyrumbradshaw]

as far as diamond goby is concerned, they sometimes will eat prepared foods, Mine eats frozen shrimp. Otherwise they will filter out things from the sand and if you do not have a large/deep enough sand bed they will starve.

[scowiii]

My diamond goby eats pellet and mysis and chopped up squid.

[Shewillbemine]

My diamond goby started getting skinny after only a few weeks in my tank. Not coincidentally, my pod population has significantly declined in that time--I do have a refugium but it can't keep up.

Once I noticed the goby was losing weight, I trained it to take silverside pieces from my chopsticks. I specifically feed him a few times each day to nurse him back to optimal weight.

[Sk8r]

Mandarin is not a goby---called a goby, but is really a dragonet, and they all eat mostly copepods. They eat them so fast it takes a fuge to keep up with their demand, unless you either have a mandarin that eats pellet food and mysis, or a really big tank.
Diamond goby is mostly a sandcleaner, and may starve to death in a small tank, having cleaned all the food out of sand. A fuge can also help a diamond survive, by continuing to supply small copepods to eat, I'd guess.